Mumbai Indians’ Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga’s participation in IPL 2019 continues to be a source of bemusement with news emerging of the pace ace preparing to return to his country to participate in a domestic tournament.

Malinga was originally supposed to miss the first six matches of the IPL in order to participate in the upcoming Super Provincial One-Day Cup, which was mandatory for World Cup selection. However, the Sri Lankan board had changed its stance for Malinga, stating that it would be better for the veteran pacer to take part in the entire IPL in order to play in a more competitive atmosphere.

“SLC decided to give permission to Lasith Malinga to play in the ongoing IPL. The management decided to release Malinga from participating in the Super Provincial; since he would get an opportunity to play with much stronger opposition in IPL; which consist of international players,” the board had said in a statement.

But in another twist in the tale, Malinga has reportedly expressed desire to return to Sri Lanka as he aims to stake his claim for ODI captaincy, which is seemingly up for grabs after the earlier favourite Dimuth Karunaratne landed in trouble for drink driving.

According to SportStar and the New Indian Express, Malinga will feature in the tournament that runs from April 4-11 as he believes it is important for his captaincy chances.

If that does happen, Mumbai Indians will not be too pleased as they invested heavily in Malinga, taking him in as a player this season after the Sri Lankan played the role of a mentor the previous season. Mumbai, however, have a ready replacement in Aussie left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff.

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